Accessories Advice Ashely’s Bride Guide Attire Averting A Crisis Awards Beauty Best of 2010 Best of 2011 Blog Fun Body Image Bouquets Bridal Shows Bridesmaid Brocade Art Designs Budget Cake Carissa Uribe Ceremony Color Contest Contests Contests Decor Designers Destination Weddings Details DIY Dresses Dulce Photography Etsy Fake Weddings Family Fashion Favors Featured Blogger Finances Flower Girls Flowers Food Food/Drink Freebies Fun General Banter Gift Registry Give-Away Grooms Guest Blogger Hair Health Holidays Honeymoon House Hunting How to Make Love I Wish Important Love Stuff Inspiration Inspiration Boards International International Weddings Introspective Invitations JCP Life Link Love Local Nashville Make-Up Marriage Marriage Prep Music Name Change Philanthropy Photography Politics Product of the Week Rant ReCaps Reception Recipes Rehearsal Gathering Resources Sarcasm Save the Date Shopping Snarky Sponsored Post Table Settings Tablescapes Travel TruLu Couture TruLu Couture Unfake Boudoir Unfake Boudoir Unfake Engagement Shoots Unfake Engagements Unfake Weddings Unfake Weddings Updates Veils Venue Vintage Wedding Gowns Wedding Planning Meltdowns Weddzilla WIC

Last time I went to see my parents, my mom and I went out and about in their little Southern horse town. Main Street, USA, has a strip of small stores of mostly over-priced goods and services for the equestrian tourists who visit the area. It cute and it fun though and my mom and I hit up the antique mall to dig around for TruLu Couture goodies.

We had wandered the whole store (it pretty big, lots of little consignment vignette-based interior boutiques) and followed the 25% off signs to a small room on the upper level, accessed by a low-ceilinged, tight staircase. I found a hat that I wanted. It was totally overpriced at $79. I left it there and we went back to our shopping.

The problem is that I couldn stop thinking about that damn hat. Why? Because it was vintage Christian Dior. DIOR! The hat was in such a state of new era hats disrepair that I could not justify $79 for it, nor 25% off $79. Still, I couldn stop thinking Cheap NIKE NFL Jerseys China about the damn hat. So when I saw my parents this week, I asked my mom to go back to the shop with Oakley Sunglass Outlet me to see about negotiating a better price.

Imagine our dismay when we couldn find the hat. Boo. I did some more digging and saw some hat boxes further back on a shelf, nearly inaccessible because of all the shit piled on the floor.

The first box was this odd purple chenille number. Pass. This one is in better shape than the other, but still needs a little tender loving care. I don think the flowers are silk, but I could be wrong. The center little puff balls are pale blue and I think they are wool felt. We see after I start with the clean-up process.

The coolest thing was that I got all three hats for $85! It was sort of funny though because I started doing the negotiations in my head on the way to cash wrap, focusing in on value of the item, the state of disrepair, the store mark-up and my mom was sort of chattering away to me the whole time. I told her I needed to negotiate alone and I realized that I needed that in my job too. I send out any other staff members so I could focus on my deal. I probably could have low-balled the lady and gotten another $5 to $10 off the price, but what I paid was pretty fair.

This quick little trip home made me realize something: I not as alone as I sometimes feel in this endeavor. While I was there, my dad showed me photos of vintage goodies from local shop that I might be interested in. He just stopped in because he wanted to help me find vintage stuff. There was a bag with some vintage crocheted trim and a scrap of vintage eyelet fabric that my mom gave me. It stuff that a lady from her sewing circle brought to her for me. Why? Because my mom told all her little old Southern sewing circle ladies to bring her vintage stuff they didn want. The Candyman got me a really expensive dress form for my birthday. My parents gave me one of their laptops so I could get out of the house to work on occasion (or at least out of the corner of spare bedroom). There are blog friends who have purchased and promoted TruLu Couture for me. My cousin sent me AWESOME goodies from Lina G for my birthday that can be made into glorious lovelies (these, I think I keep for ME!).

So while I may be working by myself, I am certainly not doing this alone. For this I am so grateful, but clearly forgetful of in times of distress or when I simply overwhelmed.

Thanks to everyone for all your support! I am one lucky girl. I mean, with all that AND Dior? Come on!

Oh! I want to see more Cheap New Era Hats of that blue Dior hat. What fabulous finds. Somewhere, I have a hand-crocheted white dress from the 1920s/1930s (visible metal zipper on the outside seam, hem hits just above ankle length), and I have no idea what to do with it.

I bought it in a vintage shop in the mid-1980s, but the threads are so brittle, it can be worn anymore. Every time I tried to wear it, threads around the waist would break and we would have to repair it. Luckily, my mom, aunt and I all know how to crochet so we could repair it, but I stopped wearing it for fear of destroying it completely. That dress really belongs in a museum somewhere, no?